Scream Paranormal Research

Well, after long debating myself on how to approach my future in paranormal research, I have decided to start a paranormal research team. I have been out with some really great investigators over the past few months and we mesh very well together. We have all agreed this is the next evolutionary step for us.

At first I had thought of joining one of the larger paranormal teams in the tri-state area, only to find out it was not for me. Most of those teams are pretty set in their ways. God bless them all. However, I don't see how I could fit into a situation that may limit my expectations. I have a "go-getter" type personality when it comes to the paranormal. I like to have a "say" in what takes place and how to handle certain situations. Hence, Scream Paranormal Research.

We currently have 6 investigators on board and about 3 'fillers' for bigger locations at the moment. The core team consists of some highly experienced individuals with the desire to find the answers to questions most people have on their mind: Do ghosts really exist?

We will be working hard for the next few weeks gather information and setting up the team website/blog. At this time, Scream Paranormal Research(SPR) will be a non-profit organization and insured.

We are currently looking to bring on a few experienced investigators. If you are interested and have experience in paranormal research, we want to hear from you.

Email me your name, phone number and experience here for consideration.

If you are having experiences in your home or business and are looking for answers, please email us here.

So, what will happen to screamparanormal.blogspot.com? No changes. I will still be doing equipment reviews, evidence posting, etc. The new Scream Paranormal Research website will have information about the team, our equipment, contact information, collected evidence(client approved), and much more.

Very exciting times coming my way. Stay tuned for more as I get to it.

Pennhurst State School

This is Pennhurst State School. Located in Spring City, PA, it is set back away from the town. Hidden from the public. Set way back in the woods.

The location was a bit hard to find. It is located on back roads just outside of the small historic town of Spring City, PA. Venturing out there at night is challenging.

Pennhurst is an amazing place. Words can't accurately describe Pennhurst. It needs to be seen face to face in order to fully understand it's awesomeness. Rusted playground slide in the middle of the courtyard, broken windows, 6 mile underground tunnel system, etc.

All of the buildings were boarded up and shut tight. In order to get into a building, we needed to use a power screwdriver. Then, once inside, you needed your power screwdriver again to seal yourself in. Otherwise, you face possible site contamination from highschoolers that try and make there way on the property at night.


The underground tunnel system is about 6 miles long. I walked through most of it and let me tell you, it is a creepy location. Pitch black. Not many light sources can be found down there due to the small boarded up windows.


Debris littered the floor in every building. Old wheel chairs, signs, dirt/rubble, etc. It looks like a place right out of a horror movie. And rightfully so. This place housed some very disturbed patients over the years.

Most of the debri is gone now. They cleaned most of it up during the renovation. It is much easier to navigate the halls and rooms of this facility after the clean-up.

This is the coat rack that hit Zack in the Ghost Adventures Pennhurst episode.

Underground patient tunnel system.

I have been to Pennhurst State School 3 times in total. Twice at night to conduct full 9 hour paranormal investigations. It is an amazing place to visit. I have been in and investigated most buildings at the site. A few named Quaker, Mayflower, Rockwell, Philadelphia, Dietary, the morgue, etc.

When they open Pennhurst to other teams, I highly recommend booking a spot to investigate. The owners are great guys and will help you in anyway they can to accommodate you. Keep your eyes open for when they open it to the public teams for investigations.

Fort Mifflin August 2010 Evidence Review

Fort Mifflin. “Fort That Saved America.” Great public place for an investigation. With the TAPS team and 100+ other investigators, not so much. I knew going into it that there would be a lot of evdience contamination, so I am the only one to blame for this. I believe that the TAPS events are meant for entertainment purposes, not true investigations.

Was the event fun? Absolutely! Loved every minute of it. Met some great people that day/night. Para Team, etc. Having fellow paranormal investigator Dan Mallo around made the night investigation run smooth.

Meet and Greet:
Dustin and Kris were very positive and upbeat as always. Bruce Tango was awesome as well. He was nice enough to take a photo with me. We even talked about Burlington County Prison for a bit. Steve and Dave looked a bit tired during the meet and greet. I believe I overheard someone say they had a late night the night before. It seemed like they were struggling with remaining positive and kind of kept to themselves. I felt like I was annoying them by asking them for a photo. Was a bit disheartening actually. The first TAPS event I went to with Kris, Amy, Britt, Jason and Grant was a bit more fun.

On the other end of things, I know it is hard to keep a smile on for the public. When I toured in a band around the country night after night, it was tiring. Constant traveling is not easy. Luckily, I understand this. But thinking of the other fans that do not understand this, makes me wonder how they perceived the meet and greet.

Investigation:
They divided us into 5 groups and we proceeded onto the hotspots of Fort Mifflin. It seemed as though Dave and Steve came back to life during this time. However, I was still a bit nervous about approaching them after the meet and greet.

We got into Elizabeth Pratt's room. A few cold spots were quickly debunked by Dan as being the air vents blowing A/C into the room. Good job Dan. With people coming in and out, it was near impossible to get anything worthy. The best experience/evidence we collected was by the bombardment room with Dave Tango's group. Dan and I headed out there immediately after Dave told us the locations we could investigate. Video evidence to follow.

As always, use isolation headphones when reviewing this evidence below.

Video:

Never had this happen before with my camcorder. My camcorder shutdown completely. The funny thing about this happening was Dan's camcorder shuts down about 1 minute after mine did in an adajecent room. We also had my IR motion sensors going off. Could have been due to bugs though. Not sure.

Here is Dan in the same room by himself and catching a whisper of some sort on my video audio.

A group in the same bomdardment area doing a question/answer session with the K-II meter. All cell phones were off during this session. I performed a K-II sweep of the entire room before we started investigating and got no K-II hits what-so-ever.

I like this video. It's not much, but I like it. This was in casemate 11 with Dustin Pari(GHI, GH). There was only 5 allowed in there at a time. The video is interesting in many ways. I heard a whisper. Dustin responded that it was him. You can hear Dustin talking, but there was a whisper as well. I was in the same spot Grant was when he saw the face in the Fort Mifflin episode of GH. Listen carefully at the 10 and 12 second marks.

Photos:

Very nice hotel room. This is the Hilton by the Philly Airport.

Bruce and I in the lobby of the hotel.

Kris and Dustin(a.k.a The Paranormal Rockstar)

Dave and Steve

Me and the new Phantom Lite IR being put through it's paces.

Steve saying something 'witty' as always.

Burlington County Evidence Review

Wow... I just love Burlington County Prison Museum. Why? Because it can turn a hard-core skeptic into a believer in under 4 hours of being there. The place never disappoints me. Going with the right group of people helps in many ways.

This brings me to a thought I had on getting good evidence... The people you are investigating with will reflect on the kind of reactions you get in a haunted location. The more positive the team of investigators are, the better reactions you get from spirits. So, always be positive when you go out. That is my opinion and it works for me.

Our guide for the night(Bill) shared some information with us as well. He said that someone had seen a confederate soldier walk through a doorway the week before. Man... what I would have paid to see that happen. Needless to say, Bill let us have the run of the place and kept out of our way the enitre night.

Video:

First off, let me say that this video blows my mind on many levels. We had just ended the investigation that night and turned the lights back on. While I was packing up equipment in the basement area, I heard a "Noooooooooo" or "Mooooooooooooveee" of some sort. This happens at the 5-6 second mark of the video. Loud enough to carry down the hall to the video camera.

Now, what makes this so special? Well, I heard the voice directly behind and to the right side of me. There was NOBODY standing behind me at all. The team was standing in front of me by the recording video camera. This has been the second time this has happened to me while investigating. The last time I heard a disembodied voice like that was at Eastern State with a "Jim Healy" talking in my ear(that time, it was the left side though)

To me, this is real-deal stuff. I heard it. I know what I heard. I know where it was. It is a personal experience backed up with a video audio recording. I love it when this happens.

On this video, you can clearly hear a whistle. It is almost like a "You who!" or "Over here!" kind of call. The best part about this is that the team was all going up the same staircase when it happened. One of the other investigators pointed this audio out on an EVP she had gotten as well. Good job Cathy!

Photos:

EVP's:

As always, try to use isolation headphones while listening to these EVP's to hear them clearly.

First and second EVP's are amazing to me. Our investigator Cathy caught the first one while on the first floor of the museum by the warden's desk. Sounds like a spirit saying "Terry", then it sounds like a response, "Her face looks soft". Nobody on our team is named "Terry" or similar.

Second EVP happens at the 2 second mark. Sounds like a spirit saying, "Terry" again. This happened at the end of the night when we stated we were packing up for the night.
If you saw the video above, you will remember the disembodied voice saying, "Noooo" or "Moooove" which happened a few minutes after this second EVP took place.

First:
http://tiny.cc/b5lzj

Second:
http://tiny.cc/5ikwj

Third EVP is of some spirit whispering "Craig" or "Chris". Trying to get our attention or relaying our names to another a spirit in the room. The EVP happens right away at the 0 second mark.

http://tiny.cc/xxdx1

Fourth EVP sounds like "You are getting very close." Very cool EVP.

http://tiny.cc/qz0yn

Fifth EVP is of footsteps we heard. You can hear footsteps at the 3 -4 second mark.

http://tiny.cc/7r5dv

Sixth EVP is a spirit asking, "Who are you?" at the 7 second mark. You can also hear the spirit saying something at the 2 seond mark. This was in the warden's house which is currently being renovated.

http://tiny.cc/gq9k5

Interested in learning more about BCP or visiting? Let me know.

Also, I have some exciting news to share soon. I have been working towards something big and it is finally coming to light. Stay tuned....

New Gear - Phantom Lite IR

Like I mentioned in a previous post, the kind folks over at Phantom Lite sent me a Phantom IR to test in the field and review. Loving new toys as much as I do, I've been looking forward to doing this review for sometime now.

I decided to take the Phantom IR with me to the Fort Mifflin/TAPS investigation on August 14th and Burlington County Prison on August 20th. I figured these would be a great place to put it through the paces considering most of the casemates in the fort are pitch black and BCP has long hallways. In my opinion, good IR illumination at these investigation hotspots is key.

Quality:
The Phantom IR comes with 25 LED's and has a pretty sturdy case to house them in. The case is made out of plastic which makes it light to carry around(When you are carrying around a 12 hour battery on your cam, you don't want extra weight.) The power switch is a standard on/off, nothing really special. You would need to buy a hot shoe adapter if you want to attach this baby to most light brackets though. It does however come with a tripod connector on the bottom for you to mount to most accessories associated with cameras or camcorders. The Phantom Lite website also sells special brackets as well.

For me, the best part about the casing is the battery compartment. It is similar to a radio/remote control type. It very is a secure compartment. I like this feature.

NOTE: Phantom Lite will be offering hot shoe adapters for their illuminators very soon. They were not yet available at the time of this review.

NOTE EDIT: Hot shoe adapters are readily now available on the Phantom Lite website. Click here to order one.

Distance:
The Phantom Lite website claims that the unit can reach a distance of 50ft. I feel as though it hit around 45ft respectfully. Those 25 LED's do show up rather nicely down a hallway if you position it on an angle towards one of the walls.

Small rooms are a breeze with this IR. It works like a flood light that lights up the entire room in infrared. Very clear and bright.

Battery Life:
The Phantom Lite website claims that the unit can last up to 12 hours. The Fort Mifflin investigation itself was from 9pm till 2am. At Burlington County Prison, I had it on for 4 hours. I let the battery run out after that and got about another 1.5 hours. So, total was around 11 hours on a single 9 volt. For the record, I used an Energizer battery. Pretty impressive battery life.

Price:
At $44.99 (+ $5.95 for flat rate shipping) this unit is fairly priced. Compare it to other units like the Sony HVL-HRM and you will see the huge difference in battery life, quality, distance, and price.

Conclusion:
Overall I would have to say that the Phantom Lite IR is a great toy to add to your arsenal of investigative equipment. It does the job rather well and is a solid illuminator to light up the IR spectrum. I will be using this IR on many investigations in the near future. Consider me sold on the Phantom Lite IR.

Interested in getting your hands on one of these bad boys? ORDER HERE